1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a printing process system, a printing control apparatus, a terminal apparatus, and a printing process method. The present invention particularly relates to a printing process system, a printing control apparatus, a terminal apparatus, and a printing process method for executing booklet printing using a plurality of printing devices.
2. Description of Related Art
The cluster printing process has been known as a means of executing a print job by distributing it among a plurality of printers connected to a network. The cluster printing process can improve productivity by means of uniformly distributing the load among a plurality of printers or distributing monochromatic/color printing process among monochromatic printers and color printers.
On the other hand, a booklet printing (Weekly Magazine Bound Printing) has been known as a part of printer functions in which images for two page are laid out and printed on one side of a sheet of paper so that a pile of sheets can be stitched in the middle to form a booklet. In the booklet printing, a technology of adjusting the shift amount (creep amount) of the position of the image printed on the sheet from the reference position based on the paper type and paper weight so that the image can be shifted toward the center from the edge of the sheet as the printing advances from the sheets on the outside towards the sheets on the inside of the booklet, has been suggested from the standpoint of improving the appearance of the booklet (refer to Unexamined Japanese Patent Publication No. 2006-263970). Such a technology can contribute to maintaining the distance of the image printed on each page from the end side constant for all pages of a booklet after trimming.
However, it has a problem of resulting in a booklet with poor appearance because of inadequate adjustments of shift amounts among a plurality of printers when the booklet printing for forming a booklet is executed by the cluster printing process mentioned above.